Marg and Leigh's travels around the world

We are two retired women from New Zealand, busy travelling the world. Our quest is to experience other cultures before they are changed beyond recognition, and see endangered animals and environments before they disappear. We hope you like our blog and enjoy our exploits. We sure have had fun getting here.

Friday, 21 October 2016

La Paz and Copacabana (Bolivia)

La Paz

Leaving Cochabamba, our bus got us safely to La
Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia, andthe highest national capital in the world with altitudes of 3,100 plus metres.

The bowl of La Paz

We entered through an area called El Alto which
is the highest part of the city, located 4,000 meters above sea level. From
there we had an amazing view down into the bowl that is La Paz central.

The mountains forming the bowl shaped valley
were covered with snow, and not far below were thousands of houses, haphazardly
perched all over the hills - what an amazing sight!

The bus crawled down through the hills to the
bus station and from there we caught a taxi to Hotel Rosario.

Street market

This hotel proved to be a good choice as it was
in a handy location in the old part of the city.

Around our hotel, there seemed to be heaps of
impromptu markets and street sellers.

We realized later that the whole city has these
street markets and that's where everyone shops - no supermarkets here.

La Paz also has a 'witches market'.

Witches market

It sells odd
stuff that you imagine a witch would use, such as dried frogs and llama foetus
etc.

It was right near our hotel. It seemed small
with only about 4 stalls, whereas, once it apparently ran the length of the
whole street.

We think it will disappear sooner rather than
later (not many witches creating a demand for these items nowadays!).

It was fascinating.

Women here still wear full Cholita outfit contributing
to the vibrancy and colour of this interesting city.

Plaza Murilo

We explored small and large streets and walked
down through Plaza San Francisco and the Prado in the city centre.

After a good look around those areas, we headed
up steep streets to Plaza Murila, a lovely square surrounded by imposing
colonial style government buildings.

Later, and with a little puffing, we got to
Calle Jaen.

This is a lovely old area with a cobbled pedestrian street full of very
attractive preserved colonial buildings, most of which are now museums.

Telerifico

Next day, we took a ride up and down the hills on the
Teleferico (cable car); an interesting part of the La Paz public transport
system. Rising up to El Alto we got fantastic views of the city below.

Walking back to our hotel afterwards was interesting
- we passed people selling anything and everything on the side of the road. There
were hundreds of people swarming in all directions over the road trying to
avoid the masses of buses and taxis that roared through them. Chaos!

Puerto de la Luna-Tiwanaku (UNESCO)

One day, we took a local mini-bus for a 2 hour drive
to the UNESCO site of Tiwanaku.
The site holds the ruins of the capital of a pre-Inca empire that flourished
from AD 300 to 1000. It was amazing with two museums and five enclosures,
gateways and temples.

These impressive structures were built from
stones weighing more than 25 tons which were somehow moved from the other side
of Lake Titicaca over 100 kilometres away.

When we finished our tour we went looking for
the mini-bus back to town only to be told it wasn't going for another two
hours!

Puerta de Sol-Tiwanaku (UNESCO)

For a vastly inflated price, the driver offered
to take us back early by ourselves.

Then two young Ecuadorian guys showed up and
also wanted to also return to La Paz.

We told them that we would share the price and
luckily, with their Spanish and clever bargaining skills, we got a good deal,
quick return, and interesting company back to La Paz.

We really enjoyed La Paz and particularly its
old Colonial centre. We had lots of great meals there, including llama
hamburgers and alpaca steaks. We got to try local fruits, like yummy cactus
fruit, and different breads and wheat and corn products. Overall, we found it
to be a vibrant and interesting city.

Copacabana

Bus on barge across Tiquina Strait-Lake Titicaca

After a good break in La Paz, we caught a bus to Copacabana which is on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, and 3,850 m above sea level.

Our bus was a tour bus rather than a local bus,
so it was full of tourists.

The trip gave us our first views of
Lake Titicaca as the road wound through the hills. At around the half way point,
we had to leave the bus and board a ferry to cross over part of the lake known
as Tiquina Strait, while our bus came over separately on a barge.

View of Lake Titicaca from hotel room

While we were waiting we had a nice time
chatting to some of the other passengers; a young guy from France and a couple
from Brazil and England. It was interesting to share travel experiences before
getting back on the bus.

Reaching Copacabana, the bus driver dropped us right at our hotel, Hotel Estelar del Largo Titicaca,which was in a great spot. We had uninterrupted
views of the lake with lots of boats moored in front of our room.

Village on Isla del Sol-Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in
the world, and by volume of water it is the largest lake in South America.

Copacabana is a tourist town with hotels,
restaurants, souvenir shops, travel agents and boat companies on the shores of
this most amazing lake.

From Copacabana, we took a trip to Isla del Sol
which is in the middle of Lake Titicaca. It is a rocky, hilly island with no motor
vehicles or paved roads, many ancient ruins and traditional villages.

Isla del Sol friends

We landed at the north end and were delighted
to discover people who we had first met on our bus trip to Copacabana, Bruno
and Lorna, plus their friend. We walked the Island together, exploring the ancient
ruins at the top of the island.

While there, we were told that if we wished to
walk to the southern end of the Island where we were to catch our boat, we
would have to walk fast to get there in time!

Isla del Sol views

The trail is approximately 11 kms, and goes up steep
hills and down again, which was a little challenging at times in the high
altitude.

But the views were spectacular and we had a
great time walking and chatting.

Different villages along the way charge a toll
to walk the track but the money all goes into its upkeep, which is fantastic.

The last part was a most amazing series of very
rugged and steep steps that went on forever to get down to the shore and our
boat.

We were starting to run late for the boat at
this stage so we had to race down as fast as we possibly could. Not easy
considering the steepness and irregular nature of the steps.

Isla del Sol donkey

Also there were lots of people going up and
down, plus donkeys carrying loads up. The donkeys would stop to one side to let
people go past - very cute. Eventually, we made it to the boat in time and
headed back to Copacabana tired but happy after a great trek with interesting
people.

Time to move on so we caught another bus - Tour
Peru - to get us across the border out of Bolivia and on to Puno which is on
the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca.

A note on Bolivia now that we are
moving on - Find the time visit this
country. It is raw and interesting and cheap and is changing rapidly. We
predict that within the next 5 years, it will be much more ‘westernised’ which
is a shame as we found it fascinating just as it is.